The most helpful favourable review

The most helpful critical review

65 of 73 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 starsStylish Summer sounds -- perfect for Winter!
Having heard little bits of Hawaiian-born American singer Bruno Mars here and there on Youtube (enough to remember him), I saw this in the supermarket today and took a gamble on it. Glad I did! ... It's not my usual thing (I'm more into Ska, Rock and Indie), but I took an instant warm to "Doo-Wops and Hooligans".

2.0 out of 5 starsLove Bruno Mars but hate his swearing - ruins the whole album
I wish that people would stop swearing on their albums, it makes it a useless item when you are too scared to play it at home or in your car when you have a 9 year old child that you are trying to bring up the right way!! They need to think about what influence they are having on our children!!

Having heard little bits of Hawaiian-born American singer Bruno Mars here and there on Youtube (enough to remember him), I saw this in the supermarket today and took a gamble on it. Glad I did! ... It's not my usual thing (I'm more into Ska, Rock and Indie), but I took an instant warm to "Doo-Wops and Hooligans".

I suppose, given his LA/Hawaii roots, his musical style is somewhat understandable: from the first track, my room filled with an uplifting (and stylish) mixture of breezy, summery pop (lightly influenced by cool, urban reggae -- though it's more pop than anything). Bruno's soft (lightly falsetto) voice is perfectly matched with his cool-beats and Caribbean-toned music. It feels like you should be listening to this on a hammock with a glass of coconut juice and crashing waves beside you ))

The songs are a blissful mixture of sunny romantic ballads and lazy chillout tracks. Personal highlights, are the addictive opener "Grenade" the appropriately titled (and infectiously inspirational) toe-tapper "The Lazy Song" ("Today I don't feel like doing any-thing...") and the moving "Count on Me". That said, though, there isn't any really any filler on the album: due to the style it's just perfect for kicking off your shoes and lying down with a of cuppa ))! My only ("slight") niggle, is that track 2 "Just The Way You Are" sounds very similar to Alicia Keys "Doesn't Mean Anything" (Element of Freedom). So close as to be little more than a complete rip-off!....(Search out the mash-ups online, they fit almost perfectly!)

Quibble aside you can't really go wrong with this album. If you like lazy, chilled-out, uplifting music go out and get it -- it's the perfect tonic for all those blue, wintry days.

I treated myself to this CD because my grandsons were always singing songs from it, and I kept hearing Bruno Mars on the car radio on my way to work. I was already familiar with 'Grenade' and 'Just the way you are', but 'Our first time' has a great reggae beat to it and it's so good to hear Damian Marley featured on 'Liquor Store Blues' - I've spent half my life listening to Bob Marley's music. Celo Green is featured on 'The Other Side' and he has a huge voice (bought his album too!). To keep it brief, there isn't a track on here that I don't enjoy, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

As debut albums go, this was a very solid start from Bruno Mars, with plenty of well-known tracks that were etched into the public conscience, including the catchy Runaway Baby, the Grammy-winning Just the Way You Are, and the borderline-infamous The Lazy Song. The rest of the album is an enjoyable mixture of reggae-pop that remains distinctive amongst Mars' other work since the release of Doo-Wops and Hooligans. There is an excellent gem in the form of The Other Side, with a superb use of Cee Lo Green and B.o.B providing their vocal skills to such a poignant track.

Doo-Wops and Hooligans is a solid album that should have plenty of listening value not because of its massive hit singles, but as a pleasantly cohesive experience from the charming yet cheesy Grenade, to the acoustic piano version of Talking to The Moon.

I wish that people would stop swearing on their albums, it makes it a useless item when you are too scared to play it at home or in your car when you have a 9 year old child that you are trying to bring up the right way!! They need to think about what influence they are having on our children!!

I am a middle aged woman and I really like Bruno Mars, his llyrics are more poetical than a lot of the other stuff around , his singing is clear and the lyrics are very tongue in cheek. I wont write loads of other stuff as it has all been writen and unless you have been on the moon for the last year then you can not avoid hearing him.